I had the opportunity to escape from Puerto Vallarta for a weekend along with some close friends, heading to Mayto, a minute beach town in the municipality of Cabo Corrientes with a spectacular, endless beach. Having previously featured a getaway to Mayto and two other nearby towns in the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of Vallarta Lifestyles, I was intrigued to return.

At the time, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the ongoing construction of a paved road connecting El Tuito, the municipal seat, with Mayto. For those of us that want to see this pristine coastline preserved as much as possible, while there has been advances on the paved road, much of everything else in the region remains unchanged. As such, Mayto, along with the surrounding towns of Tehuamixtle and Villa del Mar remain excellent places to explore. For that matter, our original Vallarta Lifestyles article remains unchanged online.

That said, we emphasize a few recommendations:

Prepare to be off the grid as far as cell phone coverage is concerned, and, for the most part, Wi-Fi.

You should still load your gas tank in Puerto Vallarta, as the PEMEX station in Tuito, due to glitches unknown to us, is yet to open for service.

While the paved portion of the road is longer, bringing travel time from Puerto Vallarta to about 1 hour, 45 minutes, non-stop, it is still advisable to make the journey on an SUV.

The road signs are still sparse along the way. So the following image gallery features the original visual clues featured in the print version of our article, as they are still useful (necessary, in fact) today. If anything, they will reassure you along the way if you are going for the first time!